Buffalo News Is A Propaganda Machine. By Mike Madigan

The
Buffalo News has again breached trust by placing an opinion piece on
its front page above the fold and packaging it as a legitimate news
story. The story was written by its propaganda and persuasion expert
Jerry Zremski.

The
Buffalo News is the primary printed news source for the Buffalo Area.
Based on this monopoly for the printed news, The Buffalo News must be
trusted not to inject propaganda and persuasion techniques on its
readers to push its own political agenda, it has breached this trust.
Below is a case summary of an article by Jerry Zremski where the
Buffalo News and Zremski once again breach that trust:

On
the front page above the fold The Buffalo News published on February
18, 2011 "
GOP's bill to cut budget would hit WNY hard – Funding
for state, city, UB imperiled by House push”
By Jerry Zremski -This
headline starts right out with an opinion and spin that belongs in
the editorial section and not on a legitimate and unbiased newspaper
front page.

A
majority of those in WNY believe that lack of such cuts in the past
has already hit WNY hard and devastated its once prosperous
manufacturing base. This majority would believe that failure to make
such cuts currently may actually have an even greater impact on its
residents than the impact of making no cuts as Zremski suggests.

Zremski
employs many of the classic methods of persuasion and propaganda in
this article such as:

Zremski
starts by suggesting the defunding of a luxury high speed rail (that
is only a concept) will hit WNY hard. He omits the fact that it
would have no impact currently in terms of jobs and the economy
since it is only a concept.

Zremski
claims the city of Buffalo and University at Buffalo would be
“imperiled” by the loss of millions without detailing what
programs would be impacted and how this creates any such peril as he
claims. The lack of substance and details suggest these funds would
be hard to justify so he chose not to list them. Omission of facts
is a method employed for persuasion and propaganda as in this case.
A legitimate news story must show the readers the facts and data so
they can decide if these programs warrant funding and whether there
truly is any impact or peril associated with their loss as Zremski
strongly claims.

Zremski
uses shock and awe by calling the relatively tepid proposed $60B cut
as being massive and seeks to incite a negative response from
readers against the cut. If a $60B cut in spending is massive then
what term should be assigned to the 2011 $1.4 trillion deficit?

To
place this $1.4 trillion deficit in context, the total amount of
income taxes collected in 2010 was less than $1 trillion. The only
thing massive is the fact that the taxpaying public would have to
increase their tax payments by 140% for 1 full year to pay it back.
For every $1000 in income tax paid by the taxpayer an additional
$1400 would be required to pay back this debt in 2011 alone (that
is truly disturbing and massive).

Zremski
next employs the tried and true propaganda method of suggesting
“local youngsters” would be impacted (think of the children…)
and in this same paragraph he refers to the defunding of abortion
counseling as “defunding family planning”. The lack of details
again prevent readers from being able to determine if taxpayer
funding is warranted and whether it would impact WNY or imperil it
as he suggests.

Zremski
carefully selects certain quotes, words and phrases throughout his
editorial to support his position and these selections are forms of
propaganda and corrosive persuasion methods. These quotes, words and
phrases are designed to incite fear, insecurity and to persuade the
reader to take action in support of the writer’s position. Such
methods do not belong in a legitimate news story and do not belong
on the front page of a legitimate newspaper. Zremski is The Buffalo
News expert in these persuasion and propaganda methods.

Quotes,
phrases and words used for impact:

“…hit
WNY Hard”,

“
…Imperil”

“House
Republicans' hard
line on
spending”.

”and
it will happen all
at once”

“massive”,

“Republicans first stab
at controlling…”

“Research
cuts could gravely
harm the Buffalo
Niagara Medical Campus”

“huge
cut”

“The
American people are not looking to completely
cripple the
federal government and leave
the nation to the corporate elite,"

The above quotes and phrases
were used to persuade and maximize the impact to the reader. They
convey the perception of rashness in action and lack of
responsibility in those actions. This was Zremski’s objective, to
push his and The Buffalo News’ political opinion and agenda.

Zremski
suggested there was a debate in his article but employed the tried
and true persuasion method of presenting and re-enforcing only one
side of the argument which thereby suggests that the other side of
the debate is not valid or worthy of review. Zremski’s phrases and
wording targeted the Republicans and sought to delegitimize them and
their position.

Zremski
does nothing to discuss the fact that current deficits and out of
control spending is not sustainable, as stated Thursday by the Fed
Chairman, and that the growing debt crises impact may far exceed
the impact these cuts may have on WNY residents.

Zremski’s
omissions are glaring throughout this editorial and reveal his
bias.

Local
representatives and leaders from all parties should act in the best
interests of their constituents and demand that The Buffalo News
conform to journalistic standards. The News must discontinue pushing
its political agenda and return to accurate, factual reporting of the
news. Save the spin and propaganda for the editorial and opinion page
where it belongs.

The
fact that The Buffalo News is a monopoly in the Buffalo market it
must behave ethically and responsibly. Failure to follow appropriate
journalistic standards by the News should warrant further action up
to and including dissolution and replacement if necessary.

If I am who I think I am, and If you are who I think you are, and you are who you think you are, and we both know that we are thinking that we know what we think we know, and we have thought about this all before we knew that we knew it, than perhaps we know who we are, and I know you and you know me, and we all live in an alien spacecraft under the sea.

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1
Comments

Dave Bowman said…

Mike, this is a very incisive and insightful article. How a newspaper can publish this drivel and still look at themselves as objective journalists is beyond comprehension. Thank you for our untiring efforts to reform the way we are mis-governed, lied to, propagandized, and herded like sheep by the people who should have our best interests at hand.